The interplay between creativity and assessment in initial teacher education

The overall aim of the research was to develop a better understanding of creativity in assessment, in order to facilitate achievement of the programme aim of developing creative teachers. This illuminative evaluation, within an interpretivist, social constructivist paradigm, was undertaken as practitioner research on an undergraduate primary education programme. During my reading and initial research I developed the Creativity Pyramid, which combined a wide range of phrases drawn from definitions of creativity, set in four hierarchical layers. I analysed existing assignment documents and school placement booklets for phrases related to creativity, using my Creativity Pyramid. In order to discover perceptions about creativity in campus-based assignments and school placement, I interviewed tutors (n=9) and students (n=7), held a virtual focus group and used semi-structured questionnaires with two year groups (Year 2, n=32; Year 1, n=55). I used an inductive approach to coding this data before identifying themes. The research showed there were opportunities for creativity in assessment on the programme, except in exams. Assessment for learning, which was more prevalent in school placement, was found to promote creativity. The campus-based assignments which were perceived as more creative were often those which required engaging an audience, such as presentations and creating resources. These assignments also had stronger constructive alignment of creativity aspects between the assignment brief and marking grid. Using the findings I developed the Creativity Cascade, which indicates facilitators and inhibitors of creativity in the cascade from tutor and teacher-mentor to student-teacher to pupil. The main recommendations were to establish a shared definition of creativity, to use this to ensure constructive alignment in all aspects of assessment, to review the core subject assignments and to increase the use of assessment for learning.